Want to bulk but keep a slender physique. Advice please

[Gustov]

Hi everyone,

I've created many threads in the past saying I CAN DO THIS BLA BLA BLA

Anyway, this is it. I've signed up to the gym and booked tennis lessons.

I want to get A) Fit B ) Have a nice physique

Here's the kind of body I would like to achieve. Not huge but just welll proportioned in all areas. I appreciate this probably takes around 2 years.

I work 5 days a week and never get home earlier than 7.30PM. My intention is to go straight from work to the gym 3 evenings a week and then once on the weekend?

I have NO idea about what workout I should be doing, what weights to lift, where to start.

With regards to diet I used to have to stay clear of dairy but now I don't. This opens up a lot of options for me, could anyone suggest a GOOD protein shake that I can mix with 2% organic milk that doesn't taste like death?

I appreciate ANY advise here guys.

 

[Gustov]

It would also be great if anyone could advise me on where to buy gym clothes for a good price

 

[krisboats]

could anyone suggest a GOOD protein shake that I can mix with 2% organic milk that doesn't taste like death?

I appreciate ANY advise here guys.

I quite like the mint choc whey by pharmawhey. Can't stand most others.



This one, but from elffoods it was like £30-35.

 

[Zefan]

I can't view the picture as I'm at work, but what you're trying to do is called a lean bulk.

I'll be interested in the feedback people give to this thread as I've just made up my own mind about it without seeking any real advice... it'll let me know how far off the mark I am

As for a protein shake, MyProtein as seen as pretty much "the" site to go to. The best "bang for buck" product is generally the Impact Whey and it's known for tasting great, even with water. I can vouch for the chocolate flavour, it's excellent and I never got bored of it or found it too sickly, something I can't say for the cookies and cream flavour I have replaced it with There are loads of other sites that people recommend, but myprotein is probably the most popular and that's their most popular product from what I can see.

Another note, I'd take the shakes post workout with water not milk. Not sure how accurate this is really but I've heard a lot of talk about drinking it with milk slowing down the absorbtion of the protein, something you really don't want just after working out!

If I think of any more stuff I'll add it.

:edit: If you're totally new to resistance training then you might want to work on your strength more than anything at first, whack stronglifts 5x5 into google and see if it takes your fancy. A lot of people start out with that for a few months before splitting down to chest day/back day/legs day, others just dive straight in. Also have a google for 3 day split routines, to get the most gains your workouts should be comprised mainly of compound exercises as opposed to isolation exercises (at least at first). Examples of isolation exercises are bicep curls, tricep extensions, leg curl/extension, where the rest of your body is supported and you're isolating a single muscle or very small group of muscles at a time. Compound exercises such as pullups, squats, deadlifts and presses will work those muscles hard too, however due to the nature of the movements the rest of your body is forced to help, resulting in many more muscles doing work to keep your form correct. For example, when squatting you obviously work your legs as you're pressing the weight upwards, but your entire core is used to stabilise the weight and keep you from toppling over. The same can't be said for a leg press/leg extension machine! I'm not explaining this very well, I'm sure someone else can do better!

 

[Gustov]

Thanks mate! Much appreciated! I've just bought some good running shoes (not that I intend on doing much running) and around £150 worth of gym clothes.

Also ordered


ITEM & DESCRIPTION AMOUNT QUANTITY MP POINTS VAT TOTAL

Impact Whey Protein
Container POUCH
Amount 1KG
Flavour Chocolate Smooth
115£0.00 £15.49

Myprotein Plastic Scoop (Large)
Container BAG
Amount LARGE
Flavour Unflavoured
10£0.00 £0.59

Myprotein Blender Bottle
Container BAG
Amount 600ML
Flavour N/A
11£0.00 £1.99

 

[Kreeeee]

£150 on gym clothes?

3 sets of gym kit should cost £75 at the most!

 

[Gustov]

I got 7 t-shirts and 4 pairs of shorts

All nice stuff too! Sports Direct sale online

£130 as well

 

[Zefan]

@ the MyProtein order, that's exactly what I started out with, you might find you go through 1kg pretty quickly if you're hitting it hard but you can always order more.

I need to get some more gym clothes too, I find I start to make excuses to not bother going when I'm running out of stuff to wear to the gym

Added a bit more in my last post, not sure how clueless you are really

 

[Skillmister]

£150 on gym clothes?

3 sets of gym kit should cost £75 at the most!

My gym kit cost £12. Pair of sweat pants and a couple of crappy t shirts

 

[tom_e]

What are your stats at the moment?

 

[Gustov]

ah here's the fun part

6ft 1 and a half

69kg :\

 

[tom_e]

ah here's the fun part

6ft 1 and a half

69kg :\

Lift heavy using the big compounds like bench, deadlift, squat and military press as a base for your workouts and going by your weight I'm pretty sure you could probably get away with just ramming as much relatively clean food down you as possible without massive fat gain being an issue and of course make sure you rest well, you grow out of the gym not in it!

edit: Infact this might be useful for a diet idea http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/eat_to_get_big_without_getting_fat

 

[icecold]

I can't view the picture as I'm at work, but what you're trying to do is called a lean bulk.

I'll be interested in the feedback people give to this thread as I've just made up my own mind about it without seeking any real advice... it'll let me know how far off the mark I am

As for a protein shake, MyProtein as seen as pretty much "the" site to go to. The best "bang for buck" product is generally the Impact Whey and it's known for tasting great, even with water. I can vouch for the chocolate flavour, it's excellent and I never got bored of it or found it too sickly, something I can't say for the cookies and cream flavour I have replaced it with There are loads of other sites that people recommend, but myprotein is probably the most popular and that's their most popular product from what I can see.

Another note, I'd take the shakes post workout with water not milk. Not sure how accurate this is really but I've heard a lot of talk about drinking it with milk slowing down the absorbtion of the protein, something you really don't want just after working out!

If I think of any more stuff I'll add it.

:edit: If you're totally new to resistance training then you might want to work on your strength more than anything at first, whack stronglifts 5x5 into google and see if it takes your fancy. A lot of people start out with that for a few months before splitting down to chest day/back day/legs day, others just dive straight in. Also have a google for 3 day split routines, to get the most gains your workouts should be comprised mainly of compound exercises as opposed to isolation exercises (at least at first). Examples of isolation exercises are bicep curls, tricep extensions, leg curl/extension, where the rest of your body is supported and you're isolating a single muscle or very small group of muscles at a time. Compound exercises such as pullups, squats, deadlifts and presses will work those muscles hard too, however due to the nature of the movements the rest of your body is forced to help, resulting in many more muscles doing work to keep your form correct. For example, when squatting you obviously work your legs as you're pressing the weight upwards, but your entire core is used to stabilise the weight and keep you from toppling over. The same can't be said for a leg press/leg extension machine! I'm not explaining this very well, I'm sure someone else can do better!

Good post to be honest!

Gustov, you'll probably want to buy more protein than that, and I'd also include some oats for easy calories.

The most important thing is that you get started and get into the routine, there will be plenty of time to tweak as you're going.

From your hight and weight it looks like your diet is going to need a lot of work too. Make sure you've read through the diet sticky at the top of the page

 

[Gustov]

The thing is, I haven't a CLUE what I should do when walking in the weights room!

I have a friend who has been training since 16 and has an unbelievable body. I might pay to take him as my guest and have him show me the ropes

I'll be eating chicken, lots and lots of chicken.

 

[Zefan]

The thing is, I haven't a CLUE what I should do when walking in the weights room!

Take a look at stronglifts and maybe google around for 3 day split routines. These will almost certainly cover the majority of what you'll need to be doing, and you can then google/youtube the exercises to your heart's content until you've got a better understanding of how they're performed.

If you're really unsure about a particular exercise (all of them I guess!), just take it really easy and start with a very, very light weight. A lot of people do this anyway as a warm up, for instance bench press using an empty olympic bar (20KG) for 15-20 reps before adding any weight. This should get you used to the movement and help warm you up before adding proper weight.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

first of all best tasting shake which is decently priced is myofusion by gaspari, tastes 100 x better than myprotein

secondly the guy in that picture has low bodyfat, and little muscle mass, tbh it sounds like your fairly skinny at 70kg and 6'1, therefore you should have low bodyfat.

to get the same amount of muscle mass as the guy in the pic shouldn't really take longer than 6 months tbh if your dedicated and know what to do.

i would do stronglifts for 4 months then switch to isolated stuff for the last 2 months, then see how much you have progressed over those 6 months.

take several pictures today and several in 6 months to compare from all angles and sides.

3rdly £150 on gym clothes is overkill, i am no cheapskate by any means, i just bought a suit last week for £600, but my gym clothes are plain white t shirts from primark (3 for £5) and white adidas shorts (probably less than £10)

there are adidas shorts on here for like £3 each

http://www.mandmdirect.com/landingpages/mens.htm

i also use some nike tight fitting under stuff, which i got cheap, helps keep warm in winter and helps get rid of sweat in summer.

4thly you may want to get a decent pair of lifting shoes or go barefoot when possible on things like deadlift and squat, decent lifting shoes will be vibrams failing them, hard soled and flat shoes like converse/chuck's

 

[LiE]

Picture looks a smaller version of me but with a little more fat.

You can gain muscle with minimum fat if you work hard on your diet and train hard/consistently. I started as a skinny guy and slowly gained muscle which means I've always been lean. I guess it depends on how you look currently.

 

[Gustov]

Thanks guys, that seems like fantastic advice ^^

Are there any good books out there to help me understand 'working out'?

Picture looks a smaller version of me but with a little more fat.

You can gain muscle with minimum fat if you work hard on your diet and train hard/consistently. I started as a skinny guy and slowly gained muscle which means I've always been lean. I guess it depends on how you look currently.

Very very lean, barely any fat on me.

Then again...my body looks like a 15 year olds.

 

[LiE]

Basically how I started out. The main reason I wanted to bulk up was because I was skinny guy. If you eat clean and keep a close eye on your diet you'll gain muscle slowly while not putting on much fat. The key is to be consistent, have a routine that you stick to.

Read the stickies to get you started. Once you have your diet defined and a routine it's a case of putting in the time and monitoring things to see if you need tweak it.

 

[Brumboy]

A good diet is extremely important when building muscle and keeping a low body fat percentage. You need to work out how many calories your body requires, then calculate how many protein/carbs/fats you require.

A quick way (although not 100% accurate obviously) is to do *Bodyweight in pounds x 14*, this is how many calories your body requires to function properly.

If you're moderately active then do *Bodyweight in pounds x 16*, this is how many calories your body needs to maintain it's weight if you're doing exercise 3x a week.

70kg = 154 pounds = 154 x 16 = 2464 calories to maintain your current body weight

Then to do a clean bulk you need to eat 500 more calories on training days and eat at your maintenance on resting days. So around 3000 calories on the days you train and 2500 calories on your resting days.

A good amount of protein to take is 1g per pound of bodyweight (roughly) so you'll need at least 150g of protein everyday which is easy with a protein shake/chicken/tuna ect.

Keep carbs high on training days and fat low. Then on resting days keep fats medium and carbs low with protein being at least 150g everyday.

Use a site like Dailyburn to track your calories if you really want but to put on lean muscle you will definitely need to keep a good diet. Plenty of green vegetables, brown carbs, water, protein.

Hope this helps, it's working for me, I used to be way too skinny for my height too but now I'm quite lean and absolutely love it .

Goodluck!